Human Resource Development: Social

Human Resource Development Policy

Viewing people as its greatest management resource, NEC has been investing in them by transforming systems and improving environments in ways that maximize the capabilities of the Company’s personnel and organization.

HR Policy “NEC, for Those Who Seek Challenge”

To be an employer of choice that is always the preferred option not only of markets and customers but also of workers, we have been reforming our workplace environment and culture. The aim of these efforts is to ensure that each employee has a range of opportunities to take on challenges and grow and receives fair evaluations. Moreover, we are creating an atmosphere in which proactive employees can shine. The aforementioned reform initiatives are based on our Human Resources (HR) Policy “NEC, for Those Who Seek Challenge,” established in 2019.

NEC Way

The foundation of the reforms that take place within this workplace environment and culture is the NEC Way, which outlines the NEC Group’s Purpose and Code of Values. We have defined our Purpose as the creation of the social values of safety, security, fairness and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential. With our sights set on realizing this Purpose, we are developing our organizational climate and culture while fostering personnel who have the passion and ambition to create new businesses, the capabilities to take on challenges beyond organizational boundaries, and the perseverance to accomplish initiatives.

NEC Way

Target Employee Engagement Score

Through these reform efforts, we hope to raise the employee engagement score to 50%¹ by fiscal 2026.

1.
Based on a survey conducted by the global human resource consulting company Kincentric, a 50% score is in Tier 1, which approximately corresponds to the top 25th percentile of companies globally.

Medium- to Long-term Targets, Priority Activities and Progress, Achievements, and Issues

Medium- to Long-term Targets and Priority Activities

(Scope: NEC Corporation unless otherwise specified) Period: April 2021 to March 2026

Cultivate leadership and strengthen management capabilities in order to sustain a successful presence in the global market
Professional development to foster a successful business transformation

FY2023 Goals, Progress, Achievements and Issues, and FY2024 Goals

FY2023 Goals

Cultivate leadership and strengthen management capabilities in order to sustain a successful presence in the global market Strengthen succession planning pipeline (Diversify human resources and cultivate global leaders)
Professional development to foster a successful business transformation
Train 10,000 human resources involved with DX by fiscal 2026

Progress, Achievements and Issues

Cultivate leadership and strengthen management capabilities in order to sustain a successful presence in the global market
- Promoted two women and two employees with non-Japanese citizenship to corporate officer positions
- Selected approximately 1,300 promising employees as candidates for the next generation of leaders, and gave them experience and training opportunities aimed at accelerating their growth (35% of nominees were women and foreign nationals, in a bid to diversify human resources)
Professional development to foster a successful business transformation
- Built a systematic human resource development promotion system linked with the growth of the DX business
- Created the definition of “human resources involved with DX,” and re-established requirements and training targets in order to strengthen personnel (refined and strengthened link with businesses)
- Reorganized training program for human resources involved with DX and continued to strengthen measures to shift and polish skills
  - Conducted training focused on thought and behavior patterns (completed by 270 people)
  - Conducted training focused on digital technologies (completed by 29,887 people)

FY2024 Goals

Cultivate leadership and strengthen management capabilities in order to sustain a successful presence in the global market
- Identify even more global and young talent, and accelerate their development
- Update training program for talent pool and promote higher-paced and more advanced training
- Enhance training centered on challenging cross-organization assignments
Professional development to foster a successful business transformation
- Further update and add sophistication to training programs based on the definition of “human resources involved with DX”
- Accelerate shift of internal personnel toward digital technologies in keeping with advances in DX business
- Strengthen progress monitoring in line with systematic development of human resources involved with DX

Human Resource Development System

With a view to realizing our HR Policy, we are rapidly responding to change and accelerating the establishment of systems that enable the timely assignment of personnel to appropriate positions.

Human Resources for Driving Transformation

We are reorganizing the roles of the People and Culture Division, which spearheads the human resource strategies that support business strategies. We have prepared a human resource model and defined the roles and responsibilities of each human resource business partner, shared service, and center of excellence. The center of excellence function plays a leading role in formulating human resource strategies and establishing optimal programs, systems, and policies and works with human resource business partners to implement measures for human resource development and training throughout the Company.

Training System for Heightening Expertise

We are conducting human resource development to strengthen the expertise of our workforce. These efforts are based on the Human Resources Management Committee—a cross-organizational body that plans, implements, and follows up on measures for specific job types, thereby contributing to the improvement of professional skills in the NEC Group.

Human Resource Foundations for One NEC

To realize the HR Policy, the NEC Group must unify its human resource foundations in-house, including those in Japan and abroad. The Company has therefore unified its human resource evaluations by conducting performance development at NEC Group companies as well as at NEC. Performance development encourages growth and changes in behavior by providing feedback that uses a system of nine blocks based on performance and the Code of Values, goal management, and one-onone meetings between supervisors and their team members.

Human Resource Development Programs

Develop Talent (Human Resource Development Program and Training)

Next-Generation Leadership Development

(1) Human resource discovery

We have clarified the target profiles of next-generation leaders as well as the capabilities they are likely to need and compiled a list of approximately 1,300 promising personnel from our operations worldwide.
We hold Talent Talks, in which corporate officers discuss promising personnel, and People & Organization Discussions, which focus on reflecting business strategy in organizational design and personnel assignment.

(2) Training program for the next generation of leaders

We have developed a stratified leadership program to train the next generation of leaders. The program, which is conducted sequentially, was offered to approximately 100 promising personnel out of roughly 1,300 who applied.
In fiscal 2023, 15 employees took part in the Advanced Leadership Program, 12 took part in the Beginning Leadership Program, and 11 took part in the Women’s Leadership Program, all of which featured feedback from corporate officers.

(3) Global human resource development

We conduct global leadership programs to ensure that we assign the most globally competent personnel to leadership positions.
We conduct the Senior Leader Program and the Rising Leader Program.

(4) Roundtable with corporate officers

Held a roundtable discussion with executives and approximately 100 personnel with particular promise
Provided opportunities for all promising personnel to engage in dialogue with executive officers

Development of Line Managers

We have launched management training for newly appointed managers, focused on optimizing performance by maximizing both team cohesion as well as the initiative, creativity, passion, and autonomous behavior of each employee. A total of 873 people participated.

Development of Personnel Conversant with Digital Technologies

We built a systematic human resource development promotion system linked with the growth of the DX business and revised the definition of “human resources involved with DX,” as well as the requirements and training goals for these human resources, in an effort to enhance them. In keeping with this effort, we have reorganized our training program for these human resources and constantly improve measures to shift and improve their skill sets. In fiscal 2023, 270 people participated in training focusing on mindset and behavior, and 29,887 people participated in training focusing on technology.

Provision of Diverse Learning Opportunities through LinkedIn Learning

In order to provide opportunities for learning to all employees in line with their learning needs, in fiscal 2021 NEC introduced LinkedIn Learning, an online video service that can be used flexibly in combination with reskilling, management, and other programs. In fiscal 2023, employees took an average of 10.6 courses via the service, with an average study time of two hours and 58 minutes.

Training Framework

Developing Talent in Key Focus Areas

NEC is actively engaged in training and acquiring human resources who can use its core technologies to create value.

Training and Acquiring Top Researchers

Utilized compensation systems with no upper limit for researchers with specialized expertise (Research Specialist Program, Selective Compensation Program for Professional Researchers for non-managerial positions)
Enhanced hiring for applicants with PhDs
Boosted hiring for researchers in data science, biometrics, networks, and security fields (Training and Acquisition of Human Resources Who Can Use Core Technologies to Create Social Value)
Trained project leaders and technological architects via personnel exchanges between business divisions and research divisions
Expanded business developer training to include researchers
Enhanced mid-career hiring centered on research engineers and domain specialists

Diversity

Cultivated researchers in Japan capable of tackling advanced global issues (70% of researchers have overseas work experience either through North American graduate schools or training programs inside or outside the Company)
Actively recruited top talent from overseas research laboratories
Recruited from leading international universities, such as the Indian Institute of Technology

Cultivation of Human Resources to Generate New Business

Established a human resource development system for business development professionals (organization of skills and competencies for business development professionals, creation of practical training system)

Development of Information Security Professionals

Developing specialists who implement security by design

NEC has been promoting a “security by design” (SBD) concept whereby security is taken into consideration for integration of products, systems, and services from the planning and design stages.
We have fostered specialists who implement SBD and have assisted the security managers² of business divisions since fiscal 2020.
Since fiscal 2022, we have introduced a new course for sales personnel. This enables participants to acquire the skills necessary to make appropriate security proposals, including incident case studies and security offerings.

2.
Individuals responsible for providing information, project support, and incident response related to cyber security for each business division

Training for taking practical safety measures

We use a virtual environment that simulates an e-commerce website and thereby provides a location where system engineers can practice taking practical security measures and acquire skills that increase the robustness of systems at their construction stage.
In fiscal 2021, we made this virtual environment available remotely, which allowed our engineers to strengthen the security technologies that underpin our clients’ systems even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Developing highly skilled cyber security personnel

In fiscal 2021, we launched the NEC Cyber Security Analyst Program, which is a more practical version of the NEC Chief Information Security Officer Aide Training Program.
Personnel well versed in cyber security technologies undergo an intensive six-month program to acquire the technical skills needed in the provision of advanced cyber security services, such as the work performed by the Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSRT) and risk hunting.

Widening our pool of cybersecurity human resources

To raise the overall level of security skills across the NEC Group, we offer web-based training on the basic cyber security knowledge required by sales personnel and system engineers.
Since fiscal 2016, NEC has held the NEC Security Skill Challenge, an in-house event for all employees aimed at building and reinforcing security skills that employees can use in their work. In fiscal 2023, a total of over 7,200 employees participated voluntarily.
We strongly encourage employees to acquire public security qualifications, such as the internationally recognized Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) qualification and the Registered Information Security Specialist national qualification.

Investing in Human Resource Development

Number of training days per employee (days) and training cost per full-time employee (yen) are as follows.

Number of training days and training cost (Data collection)

Measuring the Effects of Human Resource Development

Human Capital Return on Investment

Human capital return on investment is as follows.

Human capital return on investment (Data collection)

Initiative Outcomes Revealed by the One NEC Survey

Our annual One NEC Survey of employees of NEC Corporation and consolidated Group subsidiaries showed a two-point increase in the rate of positive responses to questions regarding career and self-development, compared with fiscal 2022, at both NEC Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries.

Programs for Upgrading Employee Skills and Transition Assistance Programs

NEC Life Career

To enable each employee to grow and be happy by pursuing a career in line with their values, NEC provides an environment where employees can think about and act on career plans. We have put in place systems that support and encourage the efforts of employees to take the initiative in improving their skills and in pursuing challenging professional roles. Specifically, in fiscal 2021 we renewed and reorganized a set of training programs and systems aimed at self-starting career development and relaunched our career training curriculum under the name Career Design Workshop. Moreover, with the aim of strengthening our ability to support employees’ career ownership, we established NEC Life Career, Ltd., in 2020.

Stronger Support for Employees’ Independent Career Development

As part of its Human Resources Policy, “NEC, for Those Who Seek Challenge,” NEC established the Career Design Workshop to help employees take greater ownership of and realize their career plans. The workshop is spearheaded by NEC Life Career, Ltd., which was established in October 2020, and was conducted for 5,500 employees ranging from their 20s to their 50s. We also held individual career consultations with over 3,000 employees who applied for the service.

In addition, when employees express interest in the opportunity to try taking on new types of work inside or outside the Group, we provide support to help them get settled and achieve success. As businesses and strategies change and organization functions change accordingly, we work vigorously to provide reskilling programs to organizations that require new functions, in addition to initiatives to increase organizational strength.

Introduction of an AI-enabled Recommendation Service to “NEC Growth Careers” (Employee and Position Matching) System

In the past, our system for matching employees and positions entailed employees reading job descriptions of published vacancies and then applying for positions that interested them. Alternatively, the personnel manager of a department with a vacancy would search published resumes and contact personnel who met the position’s requirements. In fiscal 2021, NEC began using its AI capabilities to generate job candidate recommendations. Specifically, we use machine learning to match the content of resumes with that of published vacancies. As well as giving employees more opportunities to take on challenges and grow and discover potential they did not know they had, the new service helps the personnel managers of departments with vacant positions efficiently select, secure, and assign the most suitable personnel.